Media links for Biostats Course VHM 801 at AVC - Fall Semester 2020
This page provides links to media files and webpages used in the course. A vast selection
of video clips on statistical topics is available at YouTube.
Scott Stephens supporting website (www.StevensStats.com)
Statistics links (specific topics)
- Example of serious misuse of probability/statistics: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS):
- Statistical inference:
- Recommended: review paper on misinterpretations : Greenland et al. (2016), European Journal of Epidemiology 31, 337-350.
- Press release from the ASA (American Statistical
Association) on statistical significance and P-values
- The ASA's statement on
p-values: context, process, and purpose, The American
Statistician 70, 129-133 (UPEI Access).
- Moving to a World Beyond "p<0.05" (2019),
(The American Statistician 73:sup1, 1-19).
- Sample articles in Nature: Baker (2016), Nature 531;
Leek & Peng (2015), Nature 520 (in particular, the figure).
- Sample size and power calculations:
- Flowcharts for statistical analysis (many of these exist):
- Instructional videos by Keith
Bower (at YouTube):
- Journal articles:
-
"Simple tools for understanding risks: from innumeracy to insight"
(British Medical Journal, 2003:327, 741-744).
-
"The probable error of a mean" (Biometrika, 1908:6, 1-25).
-
"Applications of "Student's" distribution" (Metron, 1925:5, 90-104).
-
"Adaptive aerial righting during the escape dropping of wingless pea aphids"
(Current Biology, 2013:23, R202-R203).
-
"Comparative study of doramectin and fipronil in the treatment of equine
chorioptic mange" (Veterinary Record, 2007:161, 335-338).
- "Misuse of multiple comparison tests
and underuse of contrast procedures in aquaculture publications", Aquaculture 437, 344-350 (UPEI Access).
Images
Stats and probability humour
- It is 1941 and the Germans are bombing Moscow. Most people in Moscow
flee to the underground bomb shelters at night, except for a famous
Russian statistician who tells a friend that he is going to sleep in his
own bed, saying that "There is only one of me, among five million other
people in Moscow. What are the chances I'll get hit?"
He survives the first night, but the next evening he shows up at the shelter. His friend asks why he has changed his mind. "Well," says the statistician, "there are five million people in this city, and one elephant in the Moscow Zoo. Last night, THEY GOT THE ELEPHANT!" (source)
- A famous statistician would never travel by airplane, because he had
studied air travel and estimated that the probability of there being a
bomb on any given flight was one in a million, and he was not prepared
to accept these odds.
One day, a colleague met him at a conference far from home. "How did you
get here, by train?"
"No, I flew"
"What about the possibility of a bomb?"
"Well, I began thinking that if the odds of one bomb are 1:million, then
the odds of two bombs are (1/1,000,000) x (1/1,000,000). This is a very,
very small probability, which I can accept. So now I bring my own bomb
along!" (Internet source no longer accessible)
- Did you know that the great majority of people have more than the
average number of legs?
It's obvious, really: Among the 57 million people in Britain, there are
probably 5,000 people who have only one leg. Therefore, the average
number of legs is:

And because most people have two legs... (Internet source no longer accessible)
Henrik Stryhn
(hstryhn@upei.ca) 2020-11-25